Crazy Ficus nursery

ShadyStump

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I think they are fascinating, grotesquely beautiful.
You don't want to view them with your bonsai eyes.
View them with your Salvador Dali or M C Escher eyes. Maybe even Hieronymus Bosch eyes.
Or view them as otherworldly, an alien landscape or fairyland.
I love what some people do with plants that requires a great deal of skill or imagination, or both.
Here is one on my favorites, a living chair.
View attachment 420100
#lifegoals

Someone said topiary, and I agree with that premise. These aren't intended for collectors or shows. They're for the grand lobby in a fancy hotel, or the gardens of a university quad, or the office park.
I think @Lorax7 and @penumbra hit the nail on the head. Remove them to individual plantings, and their unique in their surroundings, offering interest we're missing from the video, as well as the skill it takes to create them being admirable.
 

19Mateo83

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#lifegoals

Someone said topiary, and I agree with that premise. These aren't intended for collectors or shows. They're for the grand lobby in a fancy hotel, or the gardens of a university quad, or the office park.
I think @Lorax7 and @penumbra hit the nail on the head. Remove them to individual plantings, and their unique in their surroundings, offering interest we're missing from the video, as well as the skill it takes to create them being admirable.
I agree with this statement. In the field they loose their individual character and are just another tree in the row of other trees like it. Being showcased as an individual in a grander setting I can see their appeal.
 

Lorax7

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Here's a video of them bending branches to make the Podocarpus niwaki:

And another video that shows many niwaki in the nursery:
 

amcoffeegirl

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I would have any of the trees in the video.
If I was in a friendly growing zone then I could absolutely see having a couple of large specimen pots. I enjoy various types of art with trees whether it’s topiary, the one where you train fruit trees flat against walls or a fence, or the art of training bonsai styled trees in the landscape.
I don’t recall the name of that practice but I do appreciate plant growing in many forms.
 

Arnold

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I think they are fascinating, grotesquely beautiful.
You don't want to view them with your bonsai eyes.
View them with your Salvador Dali or M C Escher eyes. Maybe even Hieronymus Bosch eyes.
Or view them as otherworldly, an alien landscape or fairyland.
I love what some people do with plants that requires a great deal of skill or imagination, or both.
Here is one on my favorites, a living chair.
View attachment 420100
 

rockm

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I might be off-base, but I think many of the larger trees in the first video were made to resemble Chinese written characters-- they are bent in almost the exact same manner and are NOT simple "S" bends that are typical of mallsai... Some of the others are made to resemble animals, such as phoenix--long, flowing tail feathers are replicated by flowing roots, etc.
 

Bonsai Nut

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Are you guys ficus haters over here. Man this video is full of hundreds of different styles. Some very commercial, some 20’ tall take a huge latter to trim that I’m sure is not easy. Where’s the props??? Not here I guess!
My comment was within the context of the screenshot posted... and the fact that this is a bonsai site.

If you just want to talk about random topiary, or all the weird ways people can style trees, I don't think those are particularly good examples. They are mass-produced mallsai on a large scale - without any particular design or balance. They are just ficus trees that were randomly bent when young... and then allowed to grow for a decade. I don't hate ficus or topiary. I hate mallsai.

dc4420911438084129e85b58f3225b8b.jpg
 

ShadyStump

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My comment was within the context of the screenshot posted... and the fact that this is a bonsai site.

If you just want to talk about random topiary, or all the weird ways people can style trees, I don't think those are particularly good examples. They are mass-produced mallsai on a large scale - without any particular design or balance. They are just ficus trees that were randomly bent when young... and then allowed to grow for a decade. I don't hate ficus or topiary. I hate mallsai.

View attachment 422354
I'm looking at this picture, seeing all the different shades of foliage, and realizing there must be at least half a dozen different trees in there!
😯😯😯🤩

I'm not sure about the mustache, though. That seems like it's not alive.

And people say bonsai is a tough art.😐
 

Bonsai Nut

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In the video, the grower of this creation demanded $300,000 USD for it.
That's nothing. I've got a Fukien Tree from Home Depot that I am demanding $1 million for :)

No one cares what someone is asking for an item. They are only interested what they sell for. I'd be surprised if that topiary sold for $3000... which in Vietnam is an average annual salary. Do you think they have 2000 man hours into it (one year's labor)?
 
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